"After this I looked, and I saw in heaven the temple —that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law —and it was opened." Revelation 15.5 NIV (See also Rev. 11.19 > "Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.")

Nearly a thousand years after the giving of the Ten Commandment law on Mt. Sinai and decades after the resurrection of Christ and his ascension to heaven, the apostle John saw the temple of God in heaven opened and there was revealed the "tabernacle of the covenant law" or the "testimony" of the Old Testament that had been placed in the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy Place of the earthly tabernacle. It is this tabernacle that Scripture says was modeled on the one in heaven.

This is a clear sign that the covenant God made with Israel on the two tables of stone is the very transcript of God's divine law in heaven, the transcript of his character, the principles of love that are universal for all eternity. John first saw the open door to god's temple in chapter 4, entered to see his Creator and Redeemer, and saw the reality of the heavenly tabernacle of which the earthly was but a type. We see the same alter of incense mentioned (also in 8.1-4), the candlesticks (ch. 1), and the "tabernacle" or ark of the covenant in 15.5. There is the clearest correlation between the worship of God in heaven and that on earth. We will look at look below at several Scriptures that plainly say so.

"Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail." Hebrew 9. 1-5

These things are called a type (lit. parable in Greek) of the heavenly temple. They were made according to the plan or pattern shown Moses in the mount with God. Israel and Second Temple Judaism worshipped after the heavenly pattern, even as they corrupted it with idols from other religions and foreign gods. (see Eze. 9 and 10)

"They [the earthly furniture of the tent of witness]serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain." Heb. 8.5

We see from these texts that John was shown the true temple in heaven and there he saw the covenant made on the two tables of stone, for that is the law or testimony that was placed in the ark next to Aaron's rod that had budded and the pot of manna. (Exodus 25.18; 40.20; Deut. 10.2,5).

The point I am getting to is this, Scripture, these simple and clear statements, reveal that the Old Covenant in Ten Commandments, including the fourth commandment regarding seventh-day Sabbath, were not abolished or altered any more than one could alter the character of God from which they were drawn.

Yet we see an apostate Christianity that misreads the New Covenant promises as replacing rather than integrating with the Old. The ceremonial practices of the religious cultus were terminated, but not the eternal principles of God's divine moral law. The cultus was the shadow that was "nailed to the cross", the law of ordinances, not the Ten Commandment law. The fact that is is revealed as enshrined in heaven makes that an impossible interpretation.

What is "nailed to the cross" is the "debt" that is created by the "legal demand" of the law. The law is not nailed to the cross to die, but the debt is. It is the legal demand that the sinner pay the penalty of death for their rebellion against God that is paid in Christ blood. The Ten Commandment law, the moral law of God that Paul elsewhere extolls still convicts of sin. "So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good". (Rom. 7.12)still carries authority to convict and condemn those who refuse the Christ as their substitute. Jesus himself says the wrath of God against the violation and abuse of his love abides on them (John 3.36). Justly so.

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him." Colossians 2.13-15 NKJ"

In fact, James, the brother of Jesus, says we will be judged by the "law of liberty". The whole law, not an abbreviated 9 or altered 10. Not a changed law to suit our desires.

"For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery," also said, “Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." James 2.10-13.

Note that James is quoting directly from the Ten Commandment covenant law and says if we disobey in one point we have violated the spirit (of love) of the whole law. That would have to include the Sabbath. No change for the day is given in the New Testament. Only human tradition has made it so.

But there were other Sabbaths, days of rest, that had ceremonial meaning. They are included as the "shadows" that were done away with when the reality, the Jesus the Messiah, the Christ of God, appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself, by becoming a curse for us in dying on the "tree".

"Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God." Colossians 2.16.19

The Ten Commandment law of God was never, ever a "shadow" but the very defining word of what it means to love God with all our heart (commands 1-4) and our neighbor as ourselves (5-10).

Apostate Christianity, as foreseen in Scripture, has turned away from the true Biblical Sabbath to follow as a daughter of Catholicism as she openly professes the authority to change the "times and laws"of Gods creation.

"He shall speak words against the Most High,

and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,

and shall think to change the times and the law;

and they shall be given into his hand

for a time, times, and half a time.

But the court shall sit in judgment,

and his dominion shall be taken away,

to be consumed and destroyed to the end."

Daniel 7.25,26

She has publicly refashioned the Ten Commandments to obscure the fourth which declares a weekly, seventh-day Sabbath as the covenant sign between the Creator and his children.

Her is what the apostate church mother of churches has said regarding her change of the Sabbath:

In the Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, we read:

Q. Which is the Sabbath day?

A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.

Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?

A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea, (AD 336) transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday….

Q. Why did the Catholic Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?

A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday, because Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on a Sunday.

Q. By what authority did the Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?

A. The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her!

—Rev. Peter Geiermann, C.SS.R., (1946), p. 50."

(taken from http://www.sabbathtruth.com/free-resources/article-library/id/916/catholic-church-admits-they-made-the-change.aspx)

But Scripture says,

"Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed." Exodus 16.16,17

God is declaring and repeating the principle here of the fourth commandment which says,

"“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Exodus 20.8-11

The seventh-day Sabbath is an eternal "covenant sign" between God and his church, the church in the wilderness and the church throughout the ages to follow. This is the very covenant Sabbath sign enshrined in the temple of heaven that John saw in vision.

In Revelation 15 the vision of the covenant law, of which the Sabbath is the center or seal, is given John as the last plagues of God's judgment on the world and apostate Christianity (who broke covenant with him) are delivered from his temple by his angels. Isaiah supports this view that it is the violators of God's covenant law at Sinai that will be destroyed.

"Bind up the testimony,

Seal the law among my disciples.

And I will wait on the Lord,

Who hides His face from the house of Jacob;

And I will hope in Him.

Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me!

We are for signs and wonders in Israel

From the Lord of hosts,

Who dwells in Mount Zion.

And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter," should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

They will pass through it hard- pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness." Isa. 8.16-22 NKJV

The law of God is the basis for judgment at all times as we saw from the book of James in our quote above, but in a special vindicating way for the character of God in the last days. "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

The Word of God is the light of God, the light reveals those remnant souls who have received the seal of God (Rev. 7.1-4) in the last days. There are the ones who "keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus". Rev. 14.12 (the law and gospel of Christ).

The controversy between Christ and Satan John was shown in Revelation 12 shows who the devil is angry with on earth, of how who he persecutes because he has been cast down and can no longer attack Christ himself.

"And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Revelation 12.17

Those who keep the commandments of God as the governing principles of God's kingdom will be persecuted by the self-deluded usurper of the Kingdom. But those who are faithful, many though martyred, will will the white robes of Christ righteousness in the kingdom of God.

Mercy remains for an who violate the law of God. Christ died, not to change that law, but to provide himself as a holy substitute in the judgment for those who had transgressed his law. Sin is transgression of God's law and it was such sinner Christ came to redeem. He could not and did not change the very law he had given to Israel by his own hand nearly a thousand years before. The cross is the testimony of the New Covenant that ratifies the Old Covenant in Christ's blood. Faith in his blood does not undermine the law, but establishes it. (Rom. 3. 31).

Despite there not being a single text of Scripture to say that God has changed his holy Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week (the Sunday), millions of Christians, many very sincere and loved by God, either willfully or ignorantly disobey the very commandment that honors him as our Creator.

No wonder anti-creation and atheist sentiments are so strong today. When those professing godliness deny the law of the Creator week after week, how can one expect unbelievers to feel the conviction of God's Spirit for breaking the same law?

Time is short on this end of history. The signs of Christ soon coming are becoming greater, more visible each day. The greatest sign, as shown in Revelation 14.6 through to the end of chapter 19 is the apostasy of Christendom. She is called Babylon, immoral and idolatrous, fallen as Israel fell, and those who belong to her are called to come and join the remnant (Rev. 14.6-12; 18.4-8).

"And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow. ’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her." Rev. 18.4-8

By comparing the Old Testament judgments on apostate Israel (Ezekiel 16) with what is said of "Babylon, the mother of harlots" (Rev. 17-18) we learn that Revelation is speaking symbolically of those, Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant, who broke covenant with God and refused to repent.

For more study, which will have to wait here, comparing the time prophecies and behavior of the beast with the "little horn" in Daniel 7 and 8 with Revelation 13-17, we see that this beastly immorality and idolatry could only apply to apostate Christianity in the last days.

For a moment now, pause in heart and mind to reflect seriously on the manifestation of God's covenant in the book of Revelation and the Sabbath sign at it's center. God is calling a people to himself through the law and gospel, by the power of Christ blood in the New Covenant. Who will answer, open the door (Rev. 3.20), and come to him in the full obedience of faith?

"“ And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."

Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

“ I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!" And let him who hears say, “Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 22.12-17